Kentucky’s communities are safest when we invest in what works best for children. Right now, the stories and the numbers show that there are disparities in how children of color are treated within the Commonwealth’s systems that care for them. To begin the process of addressing these disparities, Senator Whitney Westerfield has filed Senate Bill 270. SB 270 ensures that all systems who care for our youth -- education, child welfare, and youth justice -- will [...]

House Bill 40, filed by Representative Darryl Owens, passed the House on January 15th and is awaiting a hearing in a Senate committee. This bill would expand record expungement to include the lowest class of non-violent felonies for those who have served their court-ordered requirements and moved forward on the right path without further offenses or violations. A person who makes a bad decision that results in a criminal record, particularly a felony record, can [...]

As the state’s chief prosecutor, chief law enforcement officer and chief law officer, the Attorney General supervises Kentucky’s prosecutors and advises government officials and agencies by writing opinions concerning the law. These responsibilities are crucial in ensuring that state systems work for all of Kentucky kids. In an Attorney General Candidate Conversation About Kids on Monday, both candidates—Andy Beshear and Senator Whitney Westerfield—made it clear to the more than 150 attendees that protecting kids will [...]

Looking back across my son’s 13 years of elementary, middle, and high school education, I would do some things differently. When he was in 3rd grade, my son was identified with a disability, and while he thrived in so many ways, I would have made different choices along the way if I had known then what I know now. Being a teacher as well as a mom of a child with a disability certainly had [...]

Kentucky’s children will have newly trained allies in the effort to erase child abuse thanks to the Kentucky General Assembly: their teachers. In March 2015, our legislature passed Senate Bill 119 which ensures that educators receive information on the prevention and recognition of all forms of abuse and neglect. Previously, educators were notified that they were required to report child abuse, but many were not given specialized information on how to recognize the subtle early [...]

As a former educator, I know that one of the most complicated, and I’d venture to say one of the most critical aspects of teaching children is the management of the various behaviors in the classroom. And as a mom, I know how frustrated I get when I try to provide various types of discipline to my three very different kids. Not one of the three respond to a certain method in the same way. [...]

The findings of a new study that was conducted in Kentucky fly in the face of how some administrators, educators, and parents view the suspension of students. It is commonly thought that a disruptive student’s suspension will result in better learning for the “well behaved” students because it removes the student who is the source of distracting behaviors. Two researchers looked at the academic performance of these “well behaved” students who had never been suspended [...]

July 1, 2015 is a monumental date for Kentucky’s juvenile justice reform. It is when SB200, the juvenile justice reform bill which passed in 2014, goes into full effect. An unprecedented amount of communication and collaboration has occurred within the past year between the many agencies involved in making this reform a reality. At the May 12th Juvenile Justice Oversight Council meeting, Ryan Thornell, a consultant working with Kentucky from the Crime and Justice Institute, [...]

Spring in Kentucky brings us revived energy. Kids are outdoors, playing in the yards, sidewalks and on playgrounds again. The days are brighter, longer, and more colorful. Growth abounds. And the promise of the long, lazy, hazy days of summer are on the minds of every student who walks into the doors of their school. Oh, they cannot WAIT until summer. If teachers don’t HEAR those words ump-teen times a day, they certainly FEEL and [...]

The Kentucky Core Academic Standards Challenge is still on. Terry Holliday, our Commissioner of Education, on behalf of the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) and in cooperation with a number of education advocacy groups across the state, originally issued this challenge on August 25, 2014. It will stay open until April 30, 2015. Kentucky became the very first state to adopt these standards in 2010. Even in the initial creation and subsequent adoption of them, [...]